FDI in Retail will be Disaster for the Indian market
FDI in Retail will be Disaster for the Indian market
In the wake of unprecedented haste on the part of the Union Commerce
Minister Shri Anand Sharma advocating immediate need of allowing FDI in
Retail, the Confederation of All India Traders (CAIT) has demanded
release of a White Paper as to why the Country needs FDI in Retail. The
repeated statements of Shri Sharma and others in the Government in
recent days smacks of some kind of pressure on the Govt. Let, the
Commerce Minister make people aware of the pressures-asked CAIT. CAIT
National President Mr. B. C. Bhartia and Secretary General Mr. Praveen
Khandelwal said that the decision to allow FDI in multi-brand retail is
going to be a disaster for the Indian consumer, farmer and the country
for many reasons. The retail business in the West is ample evidence of
this.Wherever big foreign retailers have entered, they have caused
havoc. In Mexico, the share of Walmart in total retail is close to 50%.
One single retailer dominates this country with a population of 110 mn.
Mexico is economically a vassal state. In Thailand, the foreign
retailers caused 30% of local shops to close in 10 years. If such a
scale of disruption happens in India, even in the big cities, millions
will be rendered jobless with no other option of livelihood for them.
They further said that the retail structure in India is a multi-faceted
one with high degree of choice. This is essential to keep consumer
prices at the lowest level possible. The Retail structure in the West is
one of concentration and domination. In the UK only three retailers
control 63% of the market. In most countries, a handful of retail chains
control the bulk of the market.Big retail chains are not good for
consumers as they are known to have very high mark ups. For everyday
items like food and grocery, western retail chains charge a mark-up of
between 40% to 100% which varies by type of merchandise.Big retail
chains will not be good for the farmer, who will become captive to them.
As big chains consolidate and get bigger and bigger, they exercise
their monopolistic power to squeeze the farmer. This is the main reason
why in the OECD countries the farmers receive enormous subsidy from
their governments. Big retail will cause local shops and street vendors
to go out of business. These shops will find sourcing difficult. The big
retailers will engage in predatory pricing which the local shops cannot
compete with. Large scale unemployment and closure of retailers will be
the result-said CAIT. Both Mr. Bhartia and Mr. Khandelwal said that
Foreign retailers are coming to take over an existing market. They are
not going to cause an increase in consumption. The result will be mass
scale displacement of the existing players. In other cases of FDI, new
markets and new categories were created. In the case of FDI in retail,
this is entirely a game of displacement. This will result in terrible
consequences for the average Indian. Big corporate foreign retailers are
not good for the lakhs of small road transporters of India. The
corporatization through big foreign retail will mean that the trade will
shift to corporate fleets and large scale fleet owners. This will
render a large section of the small road transporters redundant, forcing
them out of their livelihood.
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